1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to electrical connectors and, more particularly, to an apparatus and method for feeding electrical connectors of the card edge type and connector magazines.
2. Prior Art
In the electrical arts it is common practice to use a connector to mechanically and electrically couple a mother printed circuit board with a daughter printed circuit board of the vertical edge card variety. Generally, card edge connectors such as the COMPUTERBUS connectors, a trademark of Burndy Corporation, Norwalk, Conn., are packaged in clear PVC plastic tubes in side-by-side orientation. Burndy Corporation developed this side-by-side connector tube packaging especially for long connectors so as to overcome the disadvantage of old end-to-end packaging that allowed only a few connectors in a tube; the length of a card edge connector always being greater than the width of a card edge connector. Generally, the connectors are packaged in an upside-down position to protect the connector solder tails.
This side-by-side packaging of connectors, also known as high density packaging, provides a major advantage over the prior art in that high density connector magazines hold more connectors than end-to-end connector packaging magazines and thus, do not require to be replaced as often with a new magazine when connectors are finally emptied from a magazine. This reduces dependence on an operator to load a magazine feeder. The high density packaging, by using side-by-side packaging, results in connector tubes or magazines having as many as 60 connectors in a tube only 22 inches long. The magazines are generally used in an automatic feeder to feed connectors to an assembly robot that inserts the connectors into a mother printed circuit board.
A problem has arisen with the use of high density packaging and automatic feeders in that because high density connector magazines have many more connectors in them than the old end-to-end magazines, they are heavier than end-to-end connector magazines. Because of the heavier weight of the high density packaged magazines, not as many high density connector magazines could be stacked on top of each other in a magazine feeder as is known in the art. The heavy weight of stacked high density packaged connector magazines, generally more than six magazines stacked on top of each other, would damage the card edge connectors in the magazine at the bottom of the stack. Thus, although many more connectors could be packaged in the high density packaged magazines than in the old end-to-end type magazines, not as many high density packaged magazines could be stacked on top of each other as with the old end-to-end type magazines.
A further problem has arisen with the use of high density packaging connectors and automatic feeders in that as a bottom magazine in a feeder is emptied of connectors, feeding the connectors to the assembly robot, the weight of stacked magazines on a partially emptied bottom magazine would cause at least a portion of the bottom magazine to be crushed, inhibiting the further feeding of connectors from the bottom magazine.
A further problem has arisen in automatic feeders of card edge connectors from magazines having the connectors packaged in an upsidedown position in that further mechanisms are required to invert the connectors into an upright position before the connectors can be inserted into a mother printed circuit board. These inverting mechanisms add to the cost of an automatic feeder and require a great deal of maintenance.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an automatic feeder of connector magazines that can have high density packaged connector magazines stacked therein without weight build-up on the bottom magazines of the stack.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an automatic feeder of connector magazines that can have connector magazines stacked therein without risk of causing damage to connectors in the bottom magazines of the stack.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an automatic feeder of connector magazines that can individually support a plurality of connector magazines in a stacked orientation.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an automatic feeder of connector magazines which can have connector magazines loaded into the feeder by merely placing new connector magazines on top of a stack of connector magazines already in the feeder.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an automatic feeder of connector magazines that can controllable advance a new magazine into a connector feeding position as desired.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an automatic feeder of connector magazines that provides an accurate locating mechanism for positioning a connector magazine at a connector feeding position and which can also eject an empty magazine from the feeder.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an electrical connector feeder that can invert connectors as the connectors are advanced to an assembly site.